


my wait is you

by beatwice



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Only One Bed, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thorki week 2! :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23540650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beatwice/pseuds/beatwice
Summary: Thor is nice and gives a family his room on the Statesman.
Relationships: Loki/Thor
Comments: 12
Kudos: 192





	my wait is you

**Author's Note:**

> For Thorki Week 2’s prompt: only one bed!! Go participate!! #ThorkiWeek2 on Twitter dot corn!!

Thor watches as the next Asgardian approaches them. The look on her face tells him she’s as exhausted as everyone else on the ship and would rather be anywhere else at the moment. Yet the strength in her eyes outshines the raggedness of her appearance, even as she hoists her young daughter higher on her hip and tugs the hand of the boy next to her. The daughter coughs.

Loki looks up from the tablet he’s been hunched over for the last dozen or so people in line. They have plenty of resources on the Statesman to last a reasonable length of time without stopping for refills, but Thor had to make the difficult choice of rationing what they had, at least until they entered a star system they were sure was non-hostile.

“Hey, little man,” Korg says, nodding to the boy at the woman’s side. He hesitates before nodding back shyly, then hiding behind his mother’s skirts. 

“Afraid it’s the usual for today, Eva,” Korg says, taking the woman’s basket and filling it with three B-347s. Thor watches Korg pause before shrugging and adding an S-912.

“For dessert,” he says, with a wink.

Thor hears Loki tsk. 

“What?” Korg says lightly, clearly expecting this reaction. 

“I shouldn’t have to be the one to explain this to you, Kronan,” Loki says, eyes once again fixed on the tablet. When the girl coughs again, this time much stronger, Eva shushes her and rubs a comforting hand on her back. Loki blinks.

“It’s just a bit of cake, Your Highness,” Korg insists, and chuckles when Loki visibly bristles. 

“Unless…” Korg says teasingly, “You’ve been secretly planning to hoard all the sweets to yourself. You know, Thor told me all about how you once _overindulged_ in—” 

Loki snaps his head to glare at him, mouth already open for a likely scathing retort, when Eva politely clears her throat.

The three of them turn to face her. She flushes under their attention.

“Your...Highnesses,” Eva says, voice quiet as she eyes them warily but with conviction. 

“My daughter, she-” she says haltingly. When Thor nods for her to continue with a patient smile, she gulps and tries again.

“My daughter, Ann, has been ill, ever since- since our departure,” Eva says. She holds Ann closer to her as her little body is wracked with another coughing fit.

“Have you not sought one of the healers on board?” Loki says, a touch too cold in Thor’s opinion.

“We have, Your Highness, but were told that the cure for what ails her, it’s- it cannot be found in any of the holdings.” Her face visibly crumbles, and Thor’s heart aches for her.

“The closest star system is about two weeks from now,” Thor says, like everyone on board hasn’t been keeping meticulous track of the time. He feels that familiar pang of helplessness he’s been trying and failing to grow accustomed to ever since they boarded the ship, away from danger and from the only home most of them have ever known. 

Loki’s lips form a grim line. He asks, gentler this time, “What have the healers advised?” 

“We were told it’s highly infectious,” Eva says, seeming unconcerned about this fact. “It is likely Erik and I have already contracted it. But Ann has always been… she’s had difficulties, ever since she was a babe. Your Highness.”

“And what are you requesting?” Loki asks, his fingers gripping the tablet in his arms, like he’s holding back with all his might the urge to cast some sort of protection spell around them like that would be of any help. Thor suspects there’s already a high chance others have become ill from these three, but Eva looks like an intelligent woman.

“I’m afraid I can no longer in good faith allow ourselves to remain within the same room as the Petersens. So if it is possible, with your kind graces, I am requesting for new rooming arrangements. For the health of everyone on board.” She says it in a rush like she’s been practicing. 

Thor would like to think he and Loki are fairly approachable, himself especially considering recent events, but sometimes he forgets that for many Asgardians the social order remains as per usual. Really, the distance between them has grown even more vast ever since they began seeing and treating him as king instead of prince. Thor has yet to catch up on those sentiments.

Loki blinks and Thor can almost hear the gears in his head whirring as he thinks over the logistics. The rooming situations were settled almost two weeks ago, and Thor can’t help the frown on his face at the realization that it had taken that long for Eva to let this come to light. She likely thought those who were even worse-off from the battle needed more attention, but now that humbleness has landed them in this predicament.

Loki’s shoulders slump, and he sighs. “Eva, I’m sorry but we can’t—”

“Take mine,” Thor says.

Four pairs of eyes are on him when he says it. Korg huffs and shakes his head fondly before returning to addressing the next Asgardian in line.

“What?” Loki says.

“Your High- I mean Your Majesty,” Eva says, eyes shining gratefully. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. I’ll arrange it immediately. I have no need for a room that large for myself, anyways,” Thor says. He wonders when he started becoming more than comfortable with giving up the luxuries he had grown up with. This hardly feels like an inconvenience at all.

When Eva bows and then curtsies clumsily before making her exit, Thor catches Loki’s eyes. Loki doesn’t seem to think the same.

“You think you’re so clever,” Loki mutters, trailing behind Thor as Thor carries the bare contents of Eva’s bags to his room.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, brother,” Thor says. “Eva has two sick children to care for, as well as herself. I hardly see what’s so clever about doing the decent thing.”

Loki scoffs but says nothing. That surprises Thor. He’d been ready to give with just a bit more push.

“It pains me,” Loki begins. Thor raises his brow. “What? I can care about them.”

Thor hums noncommittally. He believes him of course. Loki couldn’t have spent all that time as a king and not have learnt a bit of empathy.

“The healing arts,” Loki continues, “they can be difficult. I could never get past healing minor wounds.” 

Thor lets the words hang in the air. He remembers clearly as day the times he’d sustained much more serious wounds Loki had managed to heal fairly well, albeit with a bit of scarring, when they had nowhere else to go. He’s been known to have a bit of a healing touch himself, but only during very specific circumstances. 

“Knowing the motions and the right words—anyone can do that,” Loki muses. “It’s about—”

“Intent. I know that,” Thor says. Never let it be said he wasn’t paying attention all those years ago. 

“It’s not like I don’t _want_ to help them. Her,” Loki says weakly. They pause in front of Thor’s room, and Thor stands patiently with his hands full as Loki unlocks it.

“I know, brother,” Thor says, he makes sure the smile he gives Loki is nothing but kind. 

Loki’s frowning when the door slides shut.

It’s late. Or the clocks on the wall at least indicate its nearly midnight, and most of those aboard the Statesman have long settled themselves in their rooms for the night.

Thor stands by the wide window at the back of the ship, watching the stars glittering across the empty blackness of space. The stillness feels like they’re hardly moving. It makes his stomach flip.

He almost lets his mind wander off into that empty darkness when he hears quiet steps behind him.

“You’re not sleeping with the Petersens.”

“No, I’m not.”

Thor has never been to Loki’s room. It would be ridiculously understated to say that it’s been... awkward between the two of them. Sometimes they speak like the last few years had never happened, the words coming easily and with that comforting familiarity. Sometimes Thor can’t bring himself to say anything at all.

He stands in the middle of his brother’s room just like that. As per usual he’s not sure what’s expected of him. He knows what he wants, he thinks, as he oggles at the trinkets and bobbles lining the shelves on the wall. But time and experience have taught him well enough that what he wants isn’t always what he gets. 

Loki’s things are almost indistinguishable from the strange memorabilia lining the rooms of the Statesman, thanks to the eccentric taste of the Grandmaster, but Thor can feel the faint seidr emanating from some of the items. 

Actually, the entire room is more magically charged that any other room Thor has been in on the ship. 

So much so that something about it is…

“Are you just going to stand there all night?” Loki asks. 

Thor feels his breath catch as green seidr washes over Loki’s form until he’s standing before Thor in his pajamas. Thor smiles at the choice of outfit. 

Loki’s always been so particular about his bedtime rituals. Even when he let Thor sneak back into his bed as children, it was never quite the same as it was when they were much younger, when Loki would let Thor wrap around him however he pleased and wouldn’t complain even once how he was suffocating him. After their parents had deemed them old enough to sleep in separate chambers, they still found their way to each other every night, but Thor found himself before Loki’s door more as Loki’s visits grew less frequent. Eventually, Thor stopped bothering altogether.

He swallows, mouth dry when Loki lifts the sheets to crawl under them, scooting to the side to allow space for Thor. It can’t be this easy.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Loki says to the ceiling.

Thor shrugs off his jerkin, works on the straps of his boots next. He stands uncertainly before the bed in his trousers. Loki gives him an exasperated look until Thor slips into bed.

Loki waves his hand and the lights dim soon after. Thor lies on his back and feels the bed shifting as Loki moves to lie on his side to face the wall, his back to Thor. Thor sighs deeply. 

Nights have been tough. Sleep comes infrequently and when it does it’s short and restless. His dreams—of fire and screaming, of uncertainty and helplessness, all his fears laid bare with nowhere to run—they- they _hurt_. A hurt that follows him throughout the day like a shadow. Trying to shake it off is useless knowing they’ll only come back the next night. He’s not sure if tonight will be like the others.

The silence between them lasts long enough that Thor thinks Loki’s finally fallen asleep, his breath a steady rhythm by his side. They’re close but not touching. 

Thor shuts his eyes and resolves to follow Loki’s example, when the sheets shift once again until Loki is facing him in the dark. Thor turns his head and their gazes lock. 

Loki’s expression is hard to read, but Thor doesn’t detect any hostility in it. On the next exhale he lets himself relax into the soft mattress. Loki’s eyes are like dark pools of ink and Thor wants to drown in them and never come back up for air.

“Do we have to talk about it?” Loki whispers in the dark.

Thor blinks. It’s. 

Too soon. 

He can’t. 

He shakes his head slowly. Loki sighs and feels like something has been released. 

Thor thinks that’s it, that Loki will give him his back again. That the walls between them will go up once more, at least until they chip at it away slowly, over time, with every scathing remark and lingering look, until it’s simmering and boiling and then exploding in both of their faces. The next time it happens Thor doesn’t think he’ll have the strength to hang on again.

He nearly startles and falls out of bed when Loki wraps an arm around Thor’s side. It’s such an awkward, stiff touch Thor can’t help the bark of laughter that bubbles out of his throat. 

Loki cringes and tries to retract his arm but Thor hurriedly grabs it, remembering at the last second to be gentle, to keep his strength in check. He wraps the arm back around himself again and takes Loki into his arms.

He smells… good. He must be keeping some kind of charm on him that keeps him clean throughout the day, Thor muses. He snuffles his face on the crook of Loki’s neck and feels his brother shiver. He nips his neck. He tastes even better. 

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Thor murmurs against warm skin. 

Loki wraps his arms around his neck and pulls him closer.


End file.
